Overview
Medicine is a broad medical term that has many specialities and subspecialties under it. It is the study of broad knowledge in diagnosing, treating and preventing many diseases. Doctors specialised in medicine are either internal medicine doctors or general medical doctors. They have a vast knowledge of medicines and how to use them in the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of various adult health issues.
What is Internal Medicine?
Internal medicine is a branch of medical science under which doctors apply their scientific and clinical knowledge to help prevent, diagnose and treat a number of medical issues. Doctors of internal medicine are called internists that diagnose puzzling medical issues, take care of patients with ongoing medical illness and also look after patients with more than one disease.
After completing internal medicine training, an internist can get a subspeciality in a particular field of internal medicine like infectious disease or cardiology.
What do internal medicine doctors treat?
What do internal medicine doctors treat various problems and diseases like:
- Diabetes: Diabetes is a condition when a bunch of medical problems result in too much sugar levels in the blood. Internal medicine doctors have experience in treating many diseases that also include diabetes. One can visit an internist if the stage of the diabetes is not life-threatening.
- High Cholesterol: Some level of cholesterol helps to build cells in the body. But, a high level of cholesterol can cause severe heart diseases. An internist will prescribe certain medications to lower high cholesterol levels. These drugs block the ability of the liver to make cholesterol.
- High Blood pressure: High blood pressure is a silent yet serious disease that doesn’t have any signs or symptoms If not treated on time, it can gradually damage the body and cause heart disease. An internist will prescribe medicines to lower your BP based on your condition and overall health.
- Sinus Infections: It is a condition where nasal cavities become inflamed. In this case, an internist is said to be the best doctor to treat sinus infection by alleviating its symptoms and prescribing the right treatment with over-the-counter medications.
- Immunity issues: Immunity issues are issues that make the immune system weak by allowing infections and other medical problems to occur. An internist helps a patient with immunity issues by preventing, treating infections and symptoms. He will prescribe certain antibiotics and medicines to treat various immunity disorders.
- Kidney diseases: Nephrology that specializes in treating kidney diseases is a subspecialty of internal medicine. An internist has the same medical knowledge as a nephrologist. He will help you to manage kidney disease complications like high BP, high cholesterol levels, anaemia, swelling, etc.
- Cancer: Oncology is also a subspecialty of Internal medicine and an internist can also treat cancer or its symptoms with just medications. The treatment depends on the patient’s condition and his overall health.
- Lung disorders: Lung disorders are a part of the respiratory system that cause complications. They can be treated with pulmonary medicine which is a part of internal medicine. The doctor of internal medicine helps in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of lung diseases by various methods.
Apart from this, there are several other health issues that are treated and managed by internists as a part of internal medicine. Internal medicine is a broad medical term under which doctors take scientific and clinical knowledge of almost every medical field.
So, even if you go to an internist and not to a specialist for some medical issue, he will be able to treat you efficiently. In severe stages of some medical issues, one may always consider a specialist of that disease.